Improvement in head-dresses for ladies



UNITED STATES PATENT OEEICE.

JOHN EDVARDS, OF NEI/V YORK, N. Y.

IMPROVEMENT IN HEAD-DRESSES FOR LADIES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 11,062, dated January 5, 1864.

T0 all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, J oHN EDWARDS, of the city,'county, and State of New York, have invented a new and Improved Head-Dress; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and eXact description of the same, referenee being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a. part of this specilication, in which- Figure 1 represents a rear elevation of a ladys head with my improved lornamental head-dress. Fig. 2 is a detached View of a portion of the head-dress, showing its structure.

Similar letters of reference in both views indicate corresponding parts.

' rlhis invention relates to an improvement in head-dresses made of horse-hair dyed in imitation to human hair; and it consists in reversing one-half of the hairs and bringing the points of one portion opposite the roots of the other portion in such a manner that the dark shades in the color of one hair are compensated by the light shades of an adjoining hair, and a braid of an apparently uniform color throughout is produced.

To enable those skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I will proceed to describe it.

A represents a head-dress, made in any desirable shape of a series of braids, a. Ordinarily the braids are made of human hair of a color corresponding to the hair of the person for which the dress is intended, and in such braids the hairs are liable to ravel or become loose at the ends, whereby the' appearance of the head-dress is rendered disorderly1 and a redressing becomes necessary at short intervals. l

In order to produce a head-dress which is not liable to ravel,and which will preserve its original appearance for a long time, I use horse-hair in place of the human hair. This horse-hair is first dyed to imitate the color of the hair'of the person for which the head-dress is intended. In dyeing it is found that the root of the hair does not take the color so well as the point, and different shades are produced in different parts of the hair. To make up for this difference I take a bundle of hairs, after the same have been dyed, divide the same in two halves, and turn one half around so that the roots of the hair composing said half are brought opposite the points of the hairs composing the other half, and after thoroughly mixing the hairs of the two parts with each other I proceedy to make the braids in the usual manner.

The horse-hair when properly dyed will closely imitate the human hair, and by reversing one-half of the hairs the shade of the braids will be uniform throughout. A headdress can thus be produced of an apparently uniform color, showing the gloss of newlydressed human hair, and braided in such a manner that it is not liable to ravel, and that in case it becomes dirty it can be readily cleansed by rubbing with a wet sponge.

Vhat I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

Reversing one-half of the hairs used in the manufacture of head-dresses which are made of horse-hair dyed in imitation to human hair and bringing the roots of one portion opposite t-he points of the other portion, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

JOHN EDWARDS.

Vitnesses:

THos. S. J. DoUeLAs, GEO. W. REED. 

